Growing up
by efilym
Summary: Rei always thought she would be a marathon runner. However, her mind changes when she plays basketball with him. Drawn by his blinding light, Rei experiences a different world and her life turns upside down. Then slowly, his light transforms into a star in the darkness she suffers and her warmth melts many hearts frozen in place.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket or any of its characters. Everything belongs to Tadatoshi Fujimaki and I only own the OCs. This goes the same for every chapter i will be uploading (including this chapter).**

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><p>The sunlight seeped through her closed window. It radiated inside her room, clearing out the emptiness and filling it up with warmth. However, the light failed to awaken the lazy sleeper no matter how much it tingled and waited. Then the sweet aroma of food leaked down the closed door and swished around the bed.<p>

Unconsciously, Rei's nose began to sniff in the smell, naturally waking the brain up. Then her brain, readily waking up other cells in her body just like how it has been functioning 11 years, started to send signals to her eyelids. But alas, the brain could not manage to open them. It swished and stomped, but the owner of the body simply refused to listen to the logical side of the brain, so the girl was still falling asleep.

Few minutes have passed. Ears awake, they twitched as they delivered the sound of her mum screaming at her, telling her to get up and do some jogging before breakfast. Lazily she got up and went to her wardrobe, picking a comfortable wear that she always wore, mumbling a complaint under her breath. It was her daily work-out time. She had always been jogging ever since she started primary school, having no excuse to not listen to her mother, who had been a professional marathon runner before she got pregnant with her child.

It was starting to get chilly outside. Fog came out of her mouth like a dragon breath, and Rei continued to blow breath out of thin air, mindlessly repeating the same process, thinking it looked fascinating. And because the fog had given her some entertainment, she felt much better already. Her eyes were no longer droopy, and her slightly slouched form became a bit straighter. It was really easy to make herself happy, just try something new and if she enjoyed it, she felt much better about life.

She decided that she will do something different today. Jogging to the same path for seven months was enough for her. She was the type of person who easily got bored, and since she didn't like repeating same routine for a long time, and Rei decided that it was time for a change.

'But I don't feel like jogging and sweating off. I need to do something interesting today' she thought.

'Hmm what if I just take a nice long walk alongside the river? The cloud looks good today…'

Simply changing her daily routine with just a change of quick thought, she decided to bring out her earphone, listen to some calm classical music and enjoy the walk. The cloud looked very nice. The wind was blowing softly, there was little noise and most importantly, it felt peaceful. This lovely weather, added with the little fun she had just now, had made her day much brighter and she was enjoying it already.

Rei had never been to this side of the town before, and for her, she thought it was worth waking up early in the morning if she was to witness such lovely nature, just beginning to rise up and shine. She didn't bother worrying about getting lost, since who cared about that when you have the nice looking river just wavering at you to come by?

As she was walking in her usual abnormally slow pace, she caught something in the back of her eye. It was a small black dot, coming closer and closer at her until she realised it was actually a ball flying straight to her face. Without thinking, she tilted her head backwards to avoid getting hit and the ball kept flying until it landed on the river, continuing to roll endlessly.

'Poor ball', she thoughts. As she expected, the orange ball kept rolling until it reached the other end.

"Oh shit", came the mumbled sound. Curious, Rei moved her head sideways to find the person who spoke. It was a boy looking similar to her age. She realised he looked pretty decent, but the thing that seemed to stand out the most to her was the colour of much tanned skin.

She wondered if he was American, but since she heard him just speaking Japanese, she quickly came up with the fact that he was probably half Japanese, or he was a good Japanese speaker. Rei didn't really get scared either. She used to live in New Zealand when she was young and English was her strong subject.

The boy ran to the riverside, looking in horror as he saw the ball on the other side of the river bay.

"Hey you"

Rei looked up at the boy again, knowing he was talking to her as she was the only person standing near the ball.

"If you could catch the ball, it wouldn't have happened in the first place! This is all your fault. What are you going to do now huh?" threatened the boy.

'Why do all decent looking boys have to be dickheads…' she thought. She didn't feel like she had to argue her point of view, the boy didn't look like he cared much about it anyway. She didn't want to start an argument either, so instead of starting a fight, she politely pointed him the direction of the bridge. It wasn't that far away, but not that close either.

The boy scratched his head. He obviously didn't know that there was a bridge nearby. He turned to her again, and asked if she played any sport.

"Do ya play any sport? I have no one to play with; I woke up too early."

I do marathon. I jog every day and today I felt like something new."

"Play basketball with me" answered the boy. Rei didn't really like the way he just demanded to make her play.

"I don't want to"

"Why not? C'mon, basketball is a lot better than whatever sport you are playing!"

Rei felt something click inside her. There were 3 things she absolutely loathed and hearing someone talk down on her was something she really didn't like.

"I don't think I want to play any game with the person who could've hit me on the face but refuses to apologise about it"

There was a short silence and she could see a slight blush on his already darkened skin.

"Really? Hey man, I'm really sorry I didn't realise it was heading to your face, I thought-I thought it was aimed at your chest, not that I was looking at it, but-but a ball flying to your chest is pretty easy to catch, and I-I-I… I'm sorry"

Sensing a serious apology in his embarrassed speech, she realised she was overreacting quite a bit and that this innocent boy didn't mean to sound like a dickhead. Feeling slightly better by hearing a sincere apology, she decided to take a walk to the bridge on the other side and get the ball for him. When she reached the other side, she fetched the ball and tried to throw back to him, only making the ball end up in the middle of the river.

There was another long silence between the boy and the girl.

"Hey man! What the hell did you just do? That was my birthday gift from my father! I know it's my fault that you nearly got hit on the face, but you don't do that to someone who already apologised!" screamed the boy who was now jumping up and down with anger, thinking she did it as a payback.

Rei didn't like things complicated. There was nothing around them that she could use to push the ball towards the boy. There was not much wind so she couldn't rely on the wave to carry it back. With a deep breath she told him, "I didn't mean to make this happen; I know that it is my fault that you lost your ball so I will just buy you another one".

Few minutes later, Rei and the boy was walking together to the sports shop to buy basketball. Already forgotten about why he was pissed off, the boy just looked happy about the fact that he was getting a new basketball. When Rei apologised again, he had told her not to worry about it since he was getting a new one anyway. The boy was so simple-minded, Rei realised. She was a type of person who liked things simple, and she at least liked that part of him. Thinking a bit highly of him, she decided to enjoy the time together without a worry.

The walk to and back from the sports shop was filled with the boy talking about how great basketball is when Rei told him she never played it before. Feeling good about getting a new ball, he offered to teach her basketball as a payment, and Rei, knowing that he was a good person to hang around with, accepted.

It was first time she ever played basketball and what surprised her mind the most was how this sport was much more interesting than marathon. She loved how the game was very fast-paced; just like how she preferred to solve things fast, and how she got to run around a lot. She was full of energy, as her daily exercise of jogging built up a strong stamina and persistence in her, and even though she was losing on her game with one on one with the guy whom she didn't bother asking for name since she figured wouldn't meet again, she managed to score one out of pure luck when he got tired and slowed down.

Because he had said that he would buy ice-cream for her if she could score at least one goal in the game, (she had to buy him ice-cream if she had lost) Rei cried out in joy when the ball hit the backboard and got in.

On their short walk to the supermarket, the boy complained about the game not being fair. He argued that it wasn't fair that the game lasted that long and she was cheating because she was a marathon runner, thus having a good stamina. Rei quickly argued back, saying stamina is one of the essential skills a basketball player should have. While bickering, they entered a supermarket.

"Fine, since I lost the bet I'll shout you one. But this will be the last time, you hear? I'm gonna start jogging from tomorrow so you can't win against me when this happens again!"

"Sure, sure. I will just get better than you then"

"Heyy! That's not fair!"

Rei decided that she liked this guy. He was fun to be around with, simple-minded so she didn't have to worry about hidden meanings or watch out and most of all, he had introduced to her the sport she immediately got interested in. She reminded herself that she will ask for a basketball lesson as soon as she gets him and beat him next time.

The guy looked surprised when all she wanted was a chupa chup.

"Are you sure you don't want any ice-cream? I've got enough money to buy you one?" asked the guy.

"It's okay. I don't like eating ice-cream in the morning, plus I like chupa chups" assured Rei as she carefully peeled the wrapping and happily popped it inside her mouth. The boy looked at her strangely, but didn't comment.

Both of them thought this would be the first and the last time they will ever see each other. However, they didn't know what their future held. They didn't know that they will be seeing each other in middle school; but for now, it was a goodbye.

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><p>I know this is pretty bad. And I am sorry for writing such bad-quality story :( but heyy, i will be improving as I write! So please forgive me until i become an expert writer.<p>

I also welcome criticisms, so please notify me if I have any spelling/grammatical/weird errors :)


	2. Meeting with ganguro

Rei was standing in front of Teiko Middle School where there were many flowers in the garden which all tried to show off their beautiful colours and their elegantly polished petals. She was busy staring at a particularly interesting species when she realised she was going to be late to class.

Scanning around, she could tell that it was indeed a school well known throughout Japan. The sheer size of the school campus was immense and awe-striking and there were varieties of different choice of club activities. Teiko was exceptionally famous for basketball club, but it didn't mean that the other clubs didn't do so well. Because of its funding policy, the amount of funds each club received were based on their performance and it led to many clubs fighting hard to earn the glory and appreciation from the school. So in the end, clubs failing to prove their worth were forced to disintegrate whereas if cubs were well flourished, it was allowed to keep continuing.

Her mum had told her to join the marathon club and to participate in the upcoming preliminaries of Tokyo marathon competition for middle school students. She had emphasised the importance of her winning, since it will make sure the school will be aware of her presence and make sure the club doesn't disappear.

Sometimes Rei felt like her mum expected too much from her. Sure, she had two abnormally large lungs for a human like her mum, which made her fit for a marathon runner. Sure, both of her parents were sportsmen and they naturally wanted her to become one like them. However, she had one problem; marathon meant nothing to her.

Rei knew that she was the type of person who only tried when she felt like it was needed or she liked it. But for her, marathon wasn't fun and it wasn't really necessary either. It was just something her mum forced her to do and something she exceled at because of her body she was born with.

People said she was lucky she had parents who supported her dreams. There were people jealous of her lungs. But she wondered, how do they know what my dream is? Some of her friends were jealous of her passion for marathon. She wondered again, how do they know if I like marathon or not?

For her, marathon was a habit. It was something she had always done ever since she was young and it had become part of her life because of the time she invested in it. But it was never fun. Heart-warming. Enjoyable.

Deep in thought, she forgot to watch out a person standing in front of her and she ended up face-palming the back of the body.

"Hey man! Watch where you're going" said the person. Quickly abandoning depressing thoughts, Rei looked up, twitching the ends of her mouth to form smile and opened her mouth.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to walk into you like that. I guess I didn't see where I was going"

"Are you okay? I'm sorry this pig head was in the way. Did you get hurt?" A girl with an abnormally large breast came up to her and flashed a big smile. Rei, quickly scanning her uniform realised she was a first year like her since she was wearing a blue tie like her.

"Hey! I'm not a pig head- it was this chic that bumped into me!" Rei couldn't see his face because of the sun that was currently in the sky. He looked pretty tall and since she was pretty short for her age, she could only look at his neck. As she couldn't be bothered, she just nodded, mumbled another apology under her breath and moved to walk around the pair when the boy suddenly grabbed her arm.

"Aren't you…Hey, you look familiar? Have I seen you before?"

"Dai-chan, don't be rude to your peers!"

"I'm not! I feel like I've seen her before.. Hey you, we've met before right?"

'Who's this rowdy kid' was the thought running through her mind as her face formed a polite smile to say no. When she made an effort to stretch her head backwards make an eye contact with the rude man, her eyes became wide as the man standing before her matched someone in her memory. Look of understanding flashed her face and her mouth opened, speaking whatever was in her mind at that moment.

"You're that loser from-"

"So you remembered! You're that girl who barely managed to beat me just 'cause I was tired and you weren't right? And who are you calling a loser, huh? I can beat you anytime in basketball, just you wait! Back then was such a fluke!"

"Hmp, I don't think you call it a 'fluke' when clearly you were sounding like a dying horse back then. Sure, you were a good dribbler and a scorer, but didn't I tell you that stamina is an essential skill to have? Stop making excuses, ganguro"

"What? You piece of-"

"Dai-chan, stop being so rude!" The big-boob interfered their conversation by slapping his back.

"I'm sorry- er, may I know your name please? My name is Momoi and this ganguro is Aomine. I am sorry if he offended you, he doesn't think before he acts"

"What? Satsuki, I will kill you if you call me ganguro once again-"

"My name is Rei, Rei Tezumi. I stayed in New-Zealand when I was young so I'm not accustomed to being called by my last name, so please just call me Rei. And you don't have to worry about me getting offended, I am used to ignoring such non sense from guys" commented Rei with a smirk looking at Aomine's direction.

Momoi, sensing something between the two suddenly put her arm up and slipped it around Aomine's arm protectively. She was surprised that her Dai-chan knew a girl beside her and she didn't like how she felt excluded. She spoke a bit louder to focus attention onto herself and also out of curiosity.

"Rei-chan, can I ask how you two know each other?"

"Oh, it's nothing. This guy was so cocky about his skill in basketball when we met, so we played and he lost." Said Rei. She felt a bit weird at the fact that Momoi was speaking her name on such friendly term, as she knew putting a suffix 'chan' was only used when you were close. But decided to ignore it since she didn't care.

"Hey- don't say it like that, you only scored once during the whole game! You're making it sound like I legit lost a game of basketball to a girl"

"WHAATTT? DAI-CHAN LOST A BASKETBALL GAME TO A GIRL?"

"No! Satsuki, it was a bet that if she scored at least one goal, she wins. It wasn't a whole game dammit!"

Rei, not bothering to fix Momoi's misunderstanding gave another smirk at Aomine's direction. She was able to get few basketball lessons after her encounter with him, and she couldn't wait to own him and see another despairing look in his eyes.

"Hey, Aomine- what if I say we play another game of basketball again?" Only after she spoke had she realised she had forgotten to add a suffix at the end of his name.  
>'Japanese is so troublesome' she thought.<p>

"Sure, I will make sure you score none this time so you can't spread any other bullshit about me"

Since Aomine didn't comment on her pronunciation of his name, she relaxed. It was just that she felt at peace around him. He acted genuine every time, and the fact that he didn't really care about anything much was a plus. She immediately knew they could be on good terms.

"Dai-chan, Rei-chan, we're going to be late to class! Rei-chan, do you know what class you're in? I'm in 1-A and Dai-chan is in 1-F" said Momoi

"Umm, no? I was just going to check but then this ganguro was in the way"

"My name is Aomine, god dammit! Stop calling me ganguro you shortass!"

"Dai-chan, stop being so rude!"

"Yeah, stop being such a dickhead, ganguro-san" smirked Rei. She congratulated herself on finding a sensitive spot to tease him about.

"Rei-chan, stop yourself too! Anyways, if you walk straight and turn right, you will see papers stuck on the wall with different names under the class list. You can check it out now, but you will have to be hurry since you have less than 3 minutes till the class! I'm sorry I can't come with you, I have to take care of Dai-chan first"

Then Momoi quickly dragged Aomine away, who looked like he was about to seriously go kill someone. Rei didn't feel scared that his glare was focused on him. She was used to it thanks to his older brother. With a mocking wave, she turned around to walk to the spot Momoi told her about.

Rei, in her slow paced walk, didn't run even when the bell rang.

'What's the whole point of running if you're already going to be late…' was the thought on her mind.


	3. Middle school-Day one

1-A, 1-B, 1-C… Rei was going through the corridor inside the school, looking for her class. She was in 1-G, which was a class after 1-F. She considered herself lucky that she wasn't placed into 1-A. The girl she met just before; Momoi seemed to find her uncomfortable and she didn't want to spend the whole year pretending to be on a friendly term with her.

The corridor was empty. Rei knew that the class had already started but she didn't walk any faster.

'Thank God Yuuki isn't with me to tell me off about how slow I walk' thought Rei.

Yuuki was one of the friends she hung out in primary school. Out of the group members, she and Yuuki were the only ones moving to Teiko Middle School. So in graduation, they had promised to arrange the time they could meet to venture the school but she hadn't heard anything from her. She already knew that the promise was just a talk so there wasn't much disappointment. Rei felt much more at ease walking alone anyways; for she enjoyed the beauty of silence but Yuuki did not.

When Rei reached her class, she slowly opened the back door, careful not to make any sound in case she was disrupting the class. As she peeped inside, she realised that she picked the worst time to enter. A boy who had a hair as bright as the sun was standing up, seemingly making a speech. His red eyes were aimed at a person who unwillingly interrupted his speech and Rei, not liking the way everyone in class turned their heads around like the guy who was standing up, realised she had to say something quickly and fast.

"I apologise for being late, sensei. I was lost on my way here." Rei spoke quietly, looking at the teacher.

"It is okay, um, please introduce yourself to everyone since we are already over introduction. We were just hearing a speech from our class representative, Akashi-san. For now, you can sit next to Ryota-san sitting at the far left corner. He just got here as well so he doesn't have anyone sitting next to him"

"Thank you very much" said Rei, still aware of the piercing glare from Akashi. The glare was on a totally different level from Aomine's. His felt much more dangerous and scary.

"Hello everyone, my name is Tezumi Rei but please just call me Rei." Said Rei and she walked silently towards the 'Ryota-san' the teacher was talking about.

As her leg was making its way through the various tables and chairs, her eyes scanned the desk near the window. The guy whom she would be sitting next to was a boy with a blonde hair which shined brightly under the sun. Its colour was as warm as the colour of the sunflower, and its medium-length hair was swaying with the gentle breeze through the window. Rei also saw how long his eyelashes were; for a guy, he had a pretty face.

All the observation was done in the matter of seconds and as she sat next to him, she spoke of a gentle 'hello' towards him to make a good impression. What surprised her was how easy it took for the boy to answer and smile back. Most of the times, people she first met either showed disinterest or shared an awkward hellos. But he was different. She could sense that whilst his mouth was smiling and his voice sounded welcoming, his golden eyes looked cold, distant and calculating.

Rei felt something akin to realisation falling upon her. She could see herself reflected on his hardened eyes. She could see through his façade because it was what she always wore. And then in the next millisecond, she realised that he was someone like her; someone who put up a fake attitude to have a normal school life. To not get hurt in anymore relationships. But throwing that thought aside, Rei spoke of a welcome with a face as equally as smiley as his was, and she saw something flashing under his eyes. Rei could feel that he could feel the same way she felt.

Sudden clapping sounds snapped Rei out of her daze. The new class representative was in the motion of sitting down.

'He must've finished his speech', Rei thought.

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The first period had ended fast. It was just a brief introduction for the year and nothing much had happened. During the break, Rei could sense few girls taking a glimpse at her table. She was sure they weren't looking at her and that meant that they were probably looking at Kise, who looked too good-looking to have a normal quiet school life.

'Must be the reason of his façade I noticed earlier.' Thought Rei as she started to take out a new textbook for her next class. IN that short frame of time, Kise's table was already full of girls wanting to start a conversation with him. When she took a glimpse at the window, she saw another big herd of girls gathered near the window. Sighing, she could already feel the chaos Kise would be bringing to her.

When she looked around, she realised that most of the girls in her class was busy surrounding the guy sitting next to her, who was busy showing them his perfected 'fake' smile. Rei stood up, scanning the classroom once again before she took few steps towards a small group of girls consisting of three, who weren't interested in the pretty boy she was forced to sit next to. She didn't want to join in the act of fan-girling the guy she just looked through and that meant she couldn't befriend any of the girls in there right now.

Rei was known for her braveness to go up to any stranger and strike any conversation without getting nervous and she was going to do the same thing because she didn't want to be a loner in class on her first day of school. The friendship group made from now could change, but it was better than sitting by herself next to the popular kid, feeling lonely.

"What's up guys! My name is Rei! Sorry but I kind of came in late today and didn't get a chance to know your names, but I would love to get a chance to be friends with you guys", spoke Rei confident but sheepishly, scratching the back of her head as she walked towards the girls. It was easy for her to always take the first step. All you had to do was just introduce yourself, join in, show them your smile, say hi and talk. It was nothing hard, something she was used to by the end of her primary school days.

"Hello Rei-san. My name is Sakura Tsuga"

"Hi! I'm Tsubaki Yuu, just call me Tsubaki, I don't mind"

"Nice to meet you, my name is Shuuro Otowari, call me Shuuro"

As she slowly mixed into the group, she found herself getting tired as she had to match their topic of their choice. Clothes, make-up, boys… These were the topic she had no interest, but she had learnt to try to remember certain amount of detail of the following topics to be 'normal' and those knowledge were proving themselves useful already.

As she analysed the conversation and the girls' body language, she realised that this was a freshly made group. She inwardly sighed in relief, knowing that she was not going to be left out. Finding a good friendship group was always the top priority when starting a new year, especially for girls. So she always changed her personality to fit whichever group. If she wanted to be liked and have a good first impression, she had to be very flexible and lenient and it wasn't hard for her to do that anymore. She was a person who laughed and smiled easily naturally, and it wasn't difficult to make it look realistic when it was needed.

As she was becoming friendly with the group, she could feel someone looking at her. Not turning around fully Rei took a sneak peak using the back of her eyes and she saw Kise. But when their eyes met, they both looked away. It felt weird to see someone like her in the same class who did the same thing as she did.

'I wonder if he understands….'

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Spending every break by going into different groups and making sure they knew her name and that she was a fun, welcoming and friendly person drenched her out by the end of school. She could feel the slight nausea coming in, telling her to have a quality time by herself. This was the repeated procedure every time after school. She would feel weakened to the heart by forcing herself to be someone she was not. It was an ongoing process. As she started to calculate the amount of time it will take for her to pack up and leave, she could feel that someone had poked her in the shoulder.

"Excuse me, Tezumi-san"

"No no no, just like I said in my introduction, Rei is just fine Kise-san. I was grown up overseas so it feels weird for me to hear people calling out to me using my last name. Please feel free to just call me Rei"

"Sure, Rei-san, um, I mean Rei. Oh! Then you can just call me Ryota too! It is rude of me to call someone using their first name when that person is calling me on such formal terms! Anyways, I was wondering if you had chosen which club you wanted to join in?"

As Kise was talking, she could see the big smile he always wore towards his fans. But weirdly, she could capture some interest dangling in his eyes.

"Hahahaha, if you insist, Ryota-kun-"

"No no no, Ryota is fine! All of my fans call me using my first name anyway."

He sounded so casual, but was it some bitterness in his voce she could sense? Rei wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to lose the chance to become on a very friendly term with the most-likely-to-be-popular-kid in her class. She could tell he was faking it. She could see that his eyes were warning her not to get any closer than what he lets. Realistically, even though it seemed like a fake relationship, it was always good for Rei to have someone like Kise next to her. It will make her seem more approachable. So without a second thought, she smiled.

"Okay, 'Ryota', seriously, this is the fastest time it took for me to be on a first name basis with a stranger"

"But we're not a stranger anymore, aren't we?" Kise asked in a playful tone.

'If this is the direction you want to head, fine by me' was the thought rampaging inside Rei's brain.

"No, definitely not. Anyways, if you were still curious, I will take a look at this one club I am interested in, but I think I know which club I will join. What about you?"

"I'm not too sure, but maybe soccer? I can't put in too much time into club activities anyway because of my job as a model- but it seems pretty popular"

"I see. Well, I think I have to hurry up - I might be late to the club introduction, I will talk to you later! Bye!"

"Bye Rei!"

It felt weird; extremely weird. For Rei, it had never taken such short time like this to become friends. She wasn't sure if this was intended by Ryota, but one thing Rei knew for sure was that it would be beneficial for her to have a friend who was popular. Laughing at her luck, one side of her mouth inched upwards. Whether Ryota was a fake or not, it was a good start of her middle school year.

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Rei's stop was, of course, the basketball club. Ever since she played it with Aomine, she had fallen in love with its fast-paced and strategic side of it and she had been hyped up about it ever since she set her foot on Teiko. She knew she wouldn't get to join in though, since because of her parents it was already decided that she was to join the marathon club. But before she did that, she wanted to enjoy the little freedom she had.

Seeing tens of boys entering the building made her realise how popular the school's basketball was. She knew from reading the Teiko newspaper that the girls' basketball team weren't as good and well known as the boys' team. The first string of the boys' team, aka the regulars had won nationals in many years but girls had failed to even get through to the regionals. She knew by taking a short look at the girls' basketball team that they were indeed weak and boring. Too many girls took it as a hobby and weren't as serious and fun as the boys' team.

There were trials held for the whole week and even though it was only the first day, the gym was packed with many first years who wanted to try out. She saw a familiar red head standing in the middle of the try outs. As she squeezed her eyes to see who it was, she was realised it was Akashi.

'Never knew he was the type to play sport…so he is the class representative, AND wants to play sport? Either he is a genius, or he tries too hard.' Thought Rei.

As she was watching the first string practise with a keen eye, she heard someone calling out her name. It was Aomine, walking towards her with Momoi tagging by.

"Hey, dickhead" commented Rei as she walked in closer as well. Surprisingly, she could feel the nausea she was feeling moments ago had disappeared and her mind seemed comfortable hanging out with him.

"I'm not a dickhead! I called you with your name and you answer with a 'dickhead'? You stupid little-"

"Dai-chan! I told you that you have to be nicer to girls!"

Her guard was up instantly as she heard Momoi speak and felt her patience thin out as she interrupted their conversation again. 'Too many times' thought Rei as she tried concentrating on Aomine once again. Rei knew that Momoi was just being nice and looking out for her. But for some reason she could feel something against the nice girl and since her instincts never proven themselves wrong, Rei decided to watch her out.

"Anyway, dickhead, why are you here? Are you trying out for basketball team as well?"

"Yes, Rei-chan! Daiki will be trying out for the team while I try out for the manager. Are you here for the same position like me as well…?"

Rei could sense that in short fraction of time Momoi had spoken, she had looked slightly worried.

'Why would Momoi be worried? ….And if she interrupts me again third time I am going to tell her off.'

Rei knew Momoi was pushing her luck when she kept cutting their conversation off. She was not the type of person to get swayed and she would not allow her to take the control of the flow.

"No, I won't be. I have already decided to join the marathon club. I'm just here to see how good they are"

"You, shortie, wait for me after practise today, okay? I'll beat your ass and make sure you don't call me dickhead anymore"

"Is that a bet? What do I get if I win?"

"You can call me dickhead all you want. But I'm tellin ya, I won't go easy like last time. Hell, that was only a fluke, okay?"

"Sure, dickhead. So same bet as last time, right?"

"Right"

"Dai-chan, I'm telling you, stop-"

"Okay dickhead, see you here after you're finished. I am going to register myself for marathon club. Don't chicken out" spoke Rei, feeling a bit better as she cut Momoi interrupting her speech again.

"That's exactly what I want, shortie. Bring it on"

* * *

><p>Heyy guys, as i was writing this chapter i was thinking about deleting it and rewriting my whole story-again. I feel like i am such a bad writer and my story is so bad :( but i have decided to just go with it and finish it first. Only after then will i think about editing or deleting or whatever- but just wanted to tell you readers that if you want a good-quality story, you should silently click that arrow pointing backwards. But i just wanted to say that if you want to see a story where the story eventually develops; where the writing gets better and better (hopefully) then you have chosen the right one:) please look out for more chapters and i will be back soon!<p> 


	4. Middle school-Day one and a half

"Excuse me, I would like to register for this club" told Rei to the boy who was standing in front of the oval. Rei squinted her eyes to see the name tag, which read 'Arasaki'_. _

The marathon club weren't given any places to train other than the oval and even then, they had to share it with the basketball regulars who did their normal exercise by running laps. This was due to the fact that the school had failed to recruit good runners in the past, which lead to failure at winning even in the preliminaries of marathon competition. Without winning any awards, it simply escaped the attention of the higher-ups, ending up being nearing abandonment.

Rei felt a sigh coming out of her mouth. It was really difficult to keep her promise with mum. Sure, it wouldn't be hard for her to come first in the preliminary marathon competition she will be forced to participate. Heck, she would even easily come first in the nationals; that was how much faith she had in her lungs and herself. But her mum, seeing her potential, had used her love of basketball against her. She made a compromise where as long as she was in the marathon club and won awards, she wouldn't touch Rei playing basketball or say anything on what she chooses to do in her free time.

'…is it really worth it' was the thought running on her mind when she had said yes to her mum. Rei could've rejected the idea but she just wasn't sure. She knew she had a good talent at marathon but she also knew that she was also as equally stunning at basketball as she was in marathon; her experience in playing street basketball with older kids had proven that to her.

However, her parents had been refusing to see her play basketball, thinking she was exaggerating about her skills. Rei didn't feel like fighting them was worth the effort either, when she wasn't even sure what she would like to do for herself in the future.

Rei was the type of person who liked to plan ahead and made sure things went according to her ways. She liked things being straight and because she had promised herself that if her talent in basketball was greater than her talent in marathon, only then would she allow the possibility of announcing it to her mum. Logically, it was the only way she could stop hearing doubts from her parent; to prove her worth. And Rei had only hoped she could achieve it before she moved on to high school.

"Sure, you just have to fill out this form. And you're done." A boy who's name she quickly remembered; Arasaki, awoke Rei from her thoughts.

"What? No test or anything?" questioned Rei. She knew that the standard would be bad, but she didn't realise they wouldn't even take the test to see what level she was up to.

"Ahhhhh," Arasaki spoke, looking as if he just realised something. "Sorry about that, we didn't have any new members last year so I kind of forgot about it". Arasaki gave a polite smile and told her to wait until he fetched something from his locker.

Rei felt something akin to disappointment at first. 'I have a lot of things I have to fix at this club'

Rei waited quietly for about few minutes. Then when her watch told her that it had been more than 10 minutes since Arasaki left, the disappointment she soon turned into anger.

'How rude of him…' thought Rei. She could understand why he looked annoyed at her; he probably didn't want any new members this year so he could go home straight away without having to waste time trialling. But he didn't have the right to be so rude to someone he just met, who didn't do anything wrong to deserve it.

With each passing minute, the desire to get him back by showing off her skills started to look very appealing. Rei wasn't originally planning to waste too much energy, as she was going to play with Aomine for a one on one; but seeing how annoyed he looked by having to walk to and from his locker to fetch whatever-only added fuel to her already swirling vicious anger.

'I'm gonna show him who the real marathon runner is' Rei told herself sternly.

"So basically what you have to do is run 10 laps within 30 minutes. If you fail the test, you won't be allowed to join the club. If you do pass, well, you get to join the club?"

Teiko's oval was huge- but not up to the point where running 10 laps would take 30 minutes. Rei got angrier at his remarks and even though she could see Aomine running out of the basketball gym with about 30 boys trailing after him, her mind was too clouded by anger to greet him and say hi.

"What about you wait and see how many laps I can run? You obviously look like you are bored out of your mind; you probably aren't expecting much of me anyways so you wouldn't have to waste 30 minutes to see me 'fail', right?" Rei had a fake smile on her face. Even though she wanted to strangle his neck and shout at him for being such a prick, he was older than her and she had to respect that.

"Sure. Then I'm just going to put a tick on the ground every time you run a lap, got it? Honestly, I'm expecting maybe 5 laps if you run full speed …maybe three, considering your body."

Rei knew she wasn't meant to hear the last sentence. But she did, and it had made her fuse go off. She hated it when someone underestimated her and she was going to show him hell.

'Three laps in full speed is my limitation, you say? I'm going to make you regret it, asshole'. With that last thought on her mind, she started to stretch her body to get ready for jogging. Then she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Rei! What're ya up to?"

It was Aomine, running towards her direction with other boys following after him. The sheer size of the boys running laps had surprised her and she quickly asked. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be playing basketball or whatever in the gym?"

"This is part of the stupid test. Only 10 out of all of us that can last the longest while running the fastest can be considered to get to play against the first string of the Teiko. I'm going to win and be the last person remaining for sure!"

"Hmm fun…" Rei spoke to herself as she observed the group while doing her last stretch. She noticed that there was already one guy with a light blue hair giving up.

'What a weakling…' thought Rei. When she moved her eyes towards the boys whom were in front of the group, her mouth widened in wonder. Red hair, green hair, blue hair, purple hair…it was like a rainbow running together. Shooting amused glances at the boys, Rei quickly rolled her ankles and wrists as she always did before a big match and she began to run.

Rei always sprinted from the very beginning to get good a head start and this time, she was aiming to reach to the head of the group. As she was on her way, she passed many tired looking boys.

Then there was that one that particularly caught her interest. It was a boy with a dark grey hair, who had been stealthily putting his foot in front of many people to trip them. It was a good dirty trick to use during the marathon and the same motion was sometimes seen during an actual competition as well. It was normally done at the start when there is a big herd of people and Rei knew exactly what she needed to do to him to get a revenge of the boys who had already fallen over and given up. Watching him quietly, Rei discreetly moved so she was in front of him and as he looked back to trip another poor guy, she pulled his hair down. Hard.

"!? Who the heck was that!?"

Laughing indiscreetly, Rei joined the sea of the boys to camouflage herself and after few seconds have passed, she made sure to trip him as she repeated the same action again. Rei was a pro at this since she had to avoid getting tripped quite a few times during a serious competition. And smiling widely, she enjoyed seeing him fall face-planting onto the ground. 'Ouch, that would've hurt- that's why you don't do that to other people. Karma's a bitch, asshole'. Then she pushed her speed slightly faster.

When Rei nearly reached the front, she felt like she was in a garden; she was surrounded by colourful hairs. She wanted to stay at her pace for a bit longer, but she increased it more so she could reach right behind the dickhead she was supposed to catch up to. She ignored the curious and surprised glances shot on her way.

"What's up, dickhead" spoke Rei as she neared him

"What the- what are you doing here? Didn't you say you are applying for a marathon club? Shouldn't you be running or whatever in the-"

"In the oval. And you and I are running in the oval, idiot."

"Ahh, I forgot about that! So are you doing your test as well right now, Rei?" smiled Aomine as he looked sideways. 'He doesn't look tired' thought Rei as she made eye-contact with him.

"Yes I am. And I was planning on telling you; the guy who's supposed to be watching my test seriously pissed me off just now, so I'm going to be running for a while just to annoy him. Hence I don't think I can come and beat your ass off today Aomine, you should be crying in joy cus you're saved today"

"Tsk tsk tsk, I wonder what he did to piss off the little shortie here" laughed Aomine, rubbing Rei's hair as if she was a little girl. Shooting curious glance at him, Rei realised how light and happy his laughter sounded like. It felt genuine.

"Don't put your sweaty hands on my hair, dickhead" Even though her words sounded angry, her tensed face had lessened and she felt her initial anger disappearing. It was always refreshing to talk to Aomine.

"Dickhead? Well, at least the dickhead in front of you can last longer than you"

"Ha, so you are finally admitting you're a dickhead now, eh?"

"It's called being sarcastic you little shit-"

"And I hope you didn't forget the incident where you gave me the chance to take the 'fluke shot' because you couldn't keep up with my stamina? It's called persistence, d-i-c-k-h-e-a-d. And I bet you won't be able to win against me, sadly" said Rei in a teasing voice. Then patting on Aomine's back as if to encourage him further, Rei started to speed up more.

Rei had a habit of sprinting full speed until she was the first; because she liked the feeling of being ahead of everyone else. And after that, everything went hazy for Rei. When Rei jogged, she ignored everything happening around her as she concentrated fully on keeping her pace and balance. So besides giving a smirk at Arasaki- who turned paler and paler each time she ran more laps-she emptied her mind and thought. This obviously meant that she didn't hear any voices being shouted at her. Voices other than what was made from her head was just a nuisance and a distraction for Rei and she kept ignoring them.

When Rei realised that she was the only one jogging out of the whole crew, she sprinted one more lap in her full speed again just to show off at Arasaki. But as she passed each boys lying on the ground with their mouth opened wide, she realised she had made a mistake of showing off at the wrong time.

"What" was the only voice she spat to the audience. Then she looked around, trying to see the blue haired teenager. When she did, she walked towards him and sat down.

Aomine was sitting in the group consisting of the same coloured hair she noticed earlier. Red, green and purple. As she looked at their faces closely, Rei realised that the red-headed boy was the class representative.

"Hey, you're my class representative, right? Akashi-san. I didn't expect to see you here". Rei started the conversation.

"Hello, Tezumi-san."

"Please, just call me Rei"

"Please, _Tezumi-san_. I don't think we are close enough to already be on the first-naming basis when this is our first real encounter"

"Errr, sure, if you insist" said Rei, looking weirdly at Akashi.

"Anyways, I never knew you were so good at marathon Tezumi-san. Since when did you start doing the marathon?"

"I started jogging ever since I was little, Akashi-san. My mum was a marathon runner so I used to jog around with her quite a lot"

"I see. You seem to be quite talented at it, as you managed to run first and also be the last one remaining"

"Thank you for the compliment, Akashi-san." Spoke Rei politely. "But I'm sure you could've done better than me, since I saw you stop straight after Aomine fell down. I'm not part of the basketball team, so technically you are the first and last one jogging."

To be honest, even though she was politely conversing with Akashi, on the inside she felt tired. It was opposite of how she felt when she talked with Aomine. With the dickhead, she felt easy. With Akashi, she felt like she had to put up another façade.

As if to show Akashi that she had no interest of continuing the conversation, Rei quickly faced Aomine. What she didn't notice was that a small smile was forming on her lips unconsciously.

"Guess who won, dickhead" teased Rei. She could tell that Arasaki was walking up and down agitatedly, peaking a look at her direction here and there. But Rei couldn't care less; he had insulted her ego big time and she was happy to ignore him just like how he ignored her by rocking up late.

Then Rei, opening the front part of her school bag took out few chuppa chups that she was saving up for later. She was planning on giving it to Aomine only, but she decided to put up her polite façade for a little bit longer and offered them to the colourful haired boys. And out of them, the purple-headed giant's reaction was the best. He had looked exceptionally happy with it and was the loudest one to say 'thank you'.

Sensing that the atmosphere had become quite awkward just now, Rei brought up a subject that she knew would start the conversation going. "How do you guys know each other? Are you from the same primary school? It's really weird to see how you guys already became friends when it's only the first day of school"

"We don't. We were ordered by the coach before to sit in groups of four, in the order of how long each person lasted for. We are the top 4 who managed to keep jogging at the front and to last the longest" Said Aomine as he concentrated on peeling the wrap off the candy. Rei could hear some pride in his voice and she knew he felt pretty proud of himself.

"I remember now- weren't you obsessed with this thing back then as well? It's even in the same flavour!" spoke Aomine as he eyed her weirdly. "Are you still obsessed with this thing? Heh, that must be why you're still in the same height as before-"

"Chuppa chups are nice~" Rei turned her head towards the voice that just spoke. Then she saw the purple giant man.

"Do you like chuppa chups, giant-san?"

"Yes- I do like them a lot. If you don't want yours, I can have yours too..?"

Rei suddenly poke in a very serious manner. "What is your favourite flavour…?"

"Hmm, I don't really have a favourite flavour, I eat whatever's sweet~"

"Do you like coke…?"

"I don't mind, why?"

"Good! Because I bought a packet with fifty chuppa chups before and I don't really like coke flavour- I can give them to you if you want?" Rei beeped in happiness as her eyes sparkled by meeting someone who had a sweet tooth like her.

"Really~?"

"Sure, why not? It's a waste throwing it out anyway"

"Thanks Ren-chin"

"Ren…? My name is Rei, giant-san"

"But Ren-chin is easier to pronounce than Rei-chin~ I like the sound of Ren-chin better too~"

"Sure, why not..." Then Rei realised that they were the only ones talking in the group, and that the other guys were staring at them weirdly.

"Sorry guys, um, my name is Rei as you probably just heard, if you don't mind me asking, may I know your names?"

"It's Shintaro Midorima-"

"My name is Seijuuro Akashi, if you weren't sure, Tezumi-san"

"It's Atsushi Murasakibara~ since you are Ren-Chin you can call me Muk-chin as well~"

.

.

After her meeting with the boys and promising Aomine that they will play at some other time- she had turned around to face Arasaki. When Rei looked sideways, she could see the total of 32 ticks made on the ground. Looking smugly at him, she put up her chin slightly higher than usual, daring him to speak about her results.

"Rei-san…You are officially in Teiko's marathon club for sure…con-congratulations" The poor guy was still shaken in disbelief.


	5. Day 5

Few days have passed since the incident and Rei could constantly hear the rumours spoken from mouth to mouth; it was always about a mysterious girl who was able to outrun the boys trying out for Teiko basketball club. Hearing a girl beating a group of strong, resilient boys was a surprise, but the fact that a group of four boys who were able to get into the first string straight away – which hadn't happened in years - had lost, even with their devilish talent; surprised them even more.

But Rei, who was the cause of all the rumours throughout Teiko, didn't care a thing. Rather, instead of sharing the excitement with the crowd, she chose to be by herself and ponder about life. For her, everyday was boring and she was already getting sick and tired of having to go to school. The only notable differences in her school life was that she now attended club activities after school, but the club had been so poorly managed that she felt no fun going there. There was no one; not even a coach to guide her training. It was a bitter reality; the club had won no awards and the school haven't given any funding in return. But she knew she could change it.

The preliminaries for the middle-school marathon competition was only few days away and Rei continuously stayed and trained every day after school to keep her body in focus and balanced for the upcoming event. All seemed to be going pretty well, except for one thing; Arasaki.

Arasaki was another thing that annoyed her endlessly. After the day she kicked down his superego, he had been avoiding her ever since and paled at the very sight of her face; it wasn't very fun to see him jumping every time he saw you. He hasn't attended the club activities for a while and Rei could only guess that he had quit.

Rei hasn't had the chance to talk to Aomine either. She knew which class he was in but she felt like they weren't close enough to see each other during the break. This annoyed her a little as well; she needed something fun and exciting from her dull life. This morning was no different from her already boring days; the usual talk with Kise who was her neighbour, and talking with the girls as if they had become 'best friends'.

To be really honest, Rei didn't believe that a 'best friend' could exist.

Rei knew that in the end, what everyone truly cared about was themselves. There is no such thing as 'loving one as one loves itself' or 'sacrificing oneself for another'. No one can understand each other fully, meaning that there will always be misunderstanding. But having to pretend that they were made for each other; this was what she loathed. To put up a mask on her face so she would look welcoming. It was always hard for her to hide how little she cared, how little she felt for them and how little she understood what went on with their stupid, overly emotional head.

Every day she had to put in more effort to keep her good façade. And it was getting harder.

"Rei-san, you look really tired; is something wrong?"

It was one of the girls she befriended two days long ago. This girl had a habit of blabbering about other people's secrets, including her own. Hearing her was very annoying; Rei wished she could just tell her to shut up and mind her own business, but making an enemy in this closed society such as the classroom was a very dangerous thing, and she couldn't allow that to happen.

"No, I'm okay; I was just wondering how you get all the guys in our class" Rei spoke with a little bit of jealousy hinted enough in her voice to make her satisfied and quickly changed the topic of the conversation.

'It's probably the same shit…', thought Rei, while portraying an image of a girl who looked greatly interested.

It was the same thing but with a different guy all the time. Kanako was the flirty girl that every girl hated; she would always come to her during lunch time when she found no guys to hang out with and express how hard and stressful it was for her to have all the attention of the boys coming after her, and how sorry she was having to reject the boys asking her out, saying she wasn't ready for a relationship.

Rei had to spend 20 minutes of her precious lunchtime pretending she was worried about her. At first, she genuinely tried to give her a good advice, thinking Kanako didn't want all the attention. But as time went on, Rei realised that there was no point wasting her energy on Kanako whom didn't bother to listen to her. Kanako just wanted other people to be worried about her, at the same time wanting all the attention drawn to herself.

Kanako told her she wouldn't understand how she feels because she never went out with a boy or had been in this type of situation. But that was a serious bullshit. She had guys confessing to her, telling her that they liked her. But she would always say sorry and say she will never be able to like them back and cut them off, because that's what her brother told her to do and what she thought was the right thing to do. It was rude to drag them on. But Kanako didn't seemed to care and she seemed to do it for every time, saying she was just being 'nice' or 'friendly'.

'…enough thinking', Rei controlled her mind before it spiralled out of her control. Once it reached her limit, she didn't know what she would do. Stopping all the activity happening in her brain, she smiled, and listened to Kanako again. It was like a continuous cycle.

.

.

Few more days have passed, and Rei easily came first in the preliminary rounds, earning a spot in Tokyo's marathon competition for middle-schoolers. Rei had a big gap of 5 minutes between herself and another girl who came second, earning a nice surprise from the people around her. It was no big deal to her however, as she trained for harder competition than this.

When she expected to resume her everyday task at school, she could notice a slight change in someone's behaviour. It was Akashi. From the day after she got back from the competition, he had been constantly staring at her or would try to round up a conversation with her. It felt weird, having the attention of the son of the heir to the famous company.

"Hello, Tezumi-san"

'Why is he interested at me so suddenly…' thought Rei as she turned around, expecting to see a red-haired teenager. She could easily guess who it was, since he was the only person in her class still calling her by her last name.

"Hello, Akashi-san. It's surprising to see you walking to school, I thought you got picked up every day?"

"I do, but as I was passing by I recognised a familiar face and decided to take a nice walk to school today."

Rei looked around to see who this 'familiar face' by Akashi was. She looked at her left; an empty street. She looked right; a cat rustling in the garbage bag looking for food. Rei scrunched up her face slightly. It didn't sound right; she knew she wasn't in a close relationship with Akashi. Then why in the world would he stop his car and walk with her?

Akashi's voice broke her chain of thought.

"I'm sure you are wondering why I got off the car to talk to you, Tezumi-san. As you already know, we are just an acquaintances, a classmate. We are not in a close relationship to be on a friendly term, as some may call. However, I was deeply intrigued by the amazing performance you pulled during the preliminary round of the marathon competition and wished to speak to you about it- as a class president and one of the members of the school council."

"What do you mean, as a member of the school council?" questioned Rei.

"Tezumi-san, there was a school council meeting yesterday after school, and we were all surprised to see such an amazing achievement coming from the marathon club. Even though it was done by only one member, the time difference you made with the second runner when you finished; it was highly astonishing. So, abiding by our school rules, I was asked to talk to you about the surplus of your club funding."

'Surplus…?'

Then Rei realised. The reason why the marathon club was so unknown and unpopular with the students was because there wasn't enough funds for them to advertise and persuade many talented students.

"But if this is in regards to funding, shouldn't you talk to Arasaki, the manager of the club?" spoke Rei. This was very strange. Akashi would know that he would have to speak to him if it regarded money. What was going on here?

"I am very saddened to tell you this, but unfortunately, the school had already decided that it would no longer support marathon club before you even went into the marathon competition. It had failed to show any achievement during the past years of establishment. But then we couldn't proceed with our decision because of you winning the competition, Tezumi-san. However, Arasaki-san would have already been informed by the school's decision by email. So, as a result, we, the school council decided to support you only."

"What do you mean, me only..? I thought it was compulsory to join any club in Teiko? Doesn't that mean that I won't be belonging into any club?"

"It means that you will be given funding to hire a coach, to pay for your energy drinks and for the use of the school yards during school if you want. The money will be managed by you, of course. The club members would have to look for other clubs to join in. The same goes for you too, Rei-san since technically, marathon club no longer exists and you need to join another club. I know it will be distressing for you to find a club again at this time of the year, but mark my words, you will have the school's approval to join any kind of club you'd like."

Rei was quiet for a minute, walking in silence. And as she was thinking, she suddenly realised that Akashi was walking in step with her abnormally slow-pace that her friends always hated. It was a pleasant surprise to see that he was nice enough to keep his pace with her. After few minutes of thinking, Rei spoke out loud.

"Let me just clarify things here. So, the marathon club is going to shut down, correct?"

"Yes"

"But I get the funding directly from the school, to aid my training? So I'm not belonging into any club right now?"

"Your funding will depend on your future performance as well, but yes and yes."

"Since I have the school's approval, I get to join any club I want?"

"Yes"

"That's awesome! It means I get to continue training for marathon, as well as being able to join any club I like! That's great! I hated this club anyway" rei spoke in a passing tone.

"I'm glad you like the changes, Tezumi-san. I was worried you might not like the decision, but I guess that was just an assumption." Smiled Akashi slightly.

For Akashi, he smiled because he didn't need to deal with an overly attached club-member.

For Rei, she smiled because she didn't have to see any more faces of unwanted club members and earn a recognition from her mother.

.

To a stranger's eye, they looked like they had a tight relationship. But in reality, they were just thinking about themselves.


End file.
